


is this the reason? (deep in our minds)

by AngstBabyJae



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Astral Projection, Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Dreams and Nightmares, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Loss of Parent(s), Memory Magic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Trauma, Underage Drinking, War, i got my inspiration to write back and i don't know for how long, i'm hopping on the glitra cellmates hc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21786934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstBabyJae/pseuds/AngstBabyJae
Summary: title is from Space Is Deep by Hawkwind.Catra and Glimmer are trapped in space, wanting nothing to do with each other, until they start getting strange dreams...
Relationships: Adora & Catra & Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra), Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Angella & Glimmer (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 121





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> these chapters are all going to vary in length.  
> this first one is pretty short.  
> i'll finally be updating "hey adora, love catra" after finals week.  
> enjoy and stay tuned!

When Glimmer came to she was left staring at the roof of the lower level of a metal bunk bed. At least she assumed it was metal. She ran a hand over it. It felt polished, like the marble back home at Bright Moon, but also something else that was very distinctly… alien.

“Where am I?” she mumbled to herself. It was then that she heard a very loud groan, pained, exhausted, and more like a yowl. She sat up in the bed quietly and slowly turned her head to face the source of the noise.

Across the silver and white room laid the last person that Glimmer would have wanted to see right then. Her hands balled into fists and she willed shining hot magic to flow into them, but the only heat she could feel was the blood coursing through her veins, pulsing along to a single rhythm: Killer… Killer… Killer…

“You!” Glimmer shouted.

And with that she was out of bed, nearly bumping herself on the metal bunk and marching over to the bunk bed parallel to hers. Her shoes were of a silvery foreign material and made little sound as she marched her way to the sleeping woman. She was dressed in a soft white jumpsuit that felt so light that it was almost as if she were wearing nothing at all.

The room was a small octagon shape, each halves mirroring the other exactly. Directly across, facing the far end, were the bunks, fairly hard compared to what Glimmer was used to, but Glimmer didn’t really expect actual hospitality from Horde Prime.

To Glimmer’s right was a long bleed-hole window with a simple metal table with two chairs leaned against its wall. To her left was a single door… with no door handle.

As Glimmer came nearer to the girl who was responsible for her mother’s death, who had destroyed her friend’s home, who had led so many battles that had killed so many lives, who had kidnapped her and her best friend, let them be tortured, broke her friend’s heart, and had done so many awful, awful things something stopped her.

She was sweating and shaking terribly. The bags below her eyelids were prominent and dark, something she hadn’t noticed before, and her eyes were squeezed tightly closed as she whimpered.

“No… no… no… please… STOP!” Catra jerked violently in place before shrinking in on herself, trembling with quiet sobs.

Glimmer backed away slowly, but a clawed hand suddenly shot from the hunched bundle and gripped her arm almost tight enough to draw blood. She yelped.

The haze cleared partially from those sad heterochromatic eyes and when recognition reached them she drew back, her face frightened and bashful. There were hints of shed tears running down her cheeks, complementing the various cuts and bruises that were plentiful there. 

With no more than a weak chirp from the back of her sore throat, she curled back into a ball once more, no longer facing Glimmer, who thought it was pretty dumb to leave one’s back turned towards an enemy in such a vulnerable state. 

Though as Glimmer’s mind thought back to her last approach of the magicat in the foundry, she didn’t think she was all too worried about dying. The thought made her shiver.

**_“Do it…”_ **

Not knowing what else there was left to do, Glimmer walked back over to her bunk and laid down once more. Her last dream had been quite perplexing. Her usual dreams of her mother’s fading face interrupted by an otherworldly purple glow that swirled and swirled, her subconscious suspended in its murky depths. 

She took a deep breath.

And she slept.

And that… was when the trouble started.


	2. Catra - Age 3

Glimmer was back again in that swirling violet vortex, floating aimlessly for what seemed like forever…

And then she wasn’t.

Suddenly all she could see was light. Bright, blinding light. This light was a stranger, one she had never known. Glimmer yowled in pain, then realized that it was in unison with a small shrill voice that sounded almost familiar.

Glimmer’s body was then gone. She was now observing everything as if watching a play from many angles. Like a video edited together on a communications pad or on a screen. She was no longer the hero of her story. There was now another. This… girl.

Catra, she recognized immediately, though she couldn’t have been older than three-years-old. She was incredibly petite, even for her age, and she was dressed only in a maroon leotard, while one could barely see under her large mane of brown hair, too big for her frail body.

The walls of the hallway they were in, Glimmer realized, were patterned in the familiar steampunk metal patchwork of the Fright Zone. Horde Guards were surrounding Young Catra, holding her thrashing body firmly to the ground while another couple of guards prodded her with long batons, which occasionally lit up with electricity, which caused the child to scream louder, sobbing into herself and screeching for them to stop. 

Her resolve eventually weakened and the toddler collapsed to the floor, leaving Glimmer staring on, horrified. One of the guards who held a baton reached to access his communicator.

“The brat’s subdued, Captain, I’d suggest throwing her into special,” he looked at the girl with disgust as she was lifted up by another soldier, hardly weighing a thing, “Conditioning before we can assimilate her with the other cadets. Is Lord Hordak really sure about this… thing? It’s a fucking magicat for crying out loud, it should have been drowned the second it was obtained,” 

He spoke as if it was an object rather than nothing more than a baby. He paused for a beat as an unintelligible voice on the other end spoke, “O-of course not, sir! I would never question Lord Hordak’s wishes! I’ll get her prepped and ready to move into the barracks by next week,” The conversation only made him seem to hate the girl more, “Get her out of my sight!” he barked before storming away, leaving the toddler to for his colleagues to deal with.

Time seemed to lapse around Glimmer and before she could even fully process what she had just seen, she was now in an army dormitory, a line of very small children raising their pudgy child hands at attention in from of their bunks.

She felt a shiver course through her as Shadow Weaver entered, inspecting the children with her sharp eyes. She got to Adora’s bunk and nodded.

“Excellent form, Adora, as always.”

Adora grinned from ear to ear, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as Shadow Weaver gave her a brief pat. Glimmer caught several of the other children pout or grimace with envy. Glimmer gave herself a closer look at her friend. She was quite tall, a big baby, really. Her ponytail sat a bit higher on her head than it did in the present and her pompadour wasn’t as prominent, nor as neat. She looked softer. Impressionable.

“Cadets-in-Training,” the kids saluted firmer than before, perhaps seeking that same recognition and praise that Adora had gotten. None of them succeeded in getting it, “Today you will be getting another amongst your ranks,” the children began to whisper excitedly, “Now, now, none of that,” she shushed.

Shadow Weaver gestured behind her and in walked two guards flanking a more submissive Catra than the one Glimmer had seen prior. She looked down at her shoes before her wide and curious eyes noticed the other kids staring back at her.

“This is Catra. I expect you all to treat her with civility, though I know that will be hard,” she looked at the stubborn girl, whose eyes were now focused guiltily on the bottom of Shadow Weaver’s robes. So that’s how they got those rips at the bottom?

At this the children burst into laughter, while put the prideful hint of a smile on Catra’s freckled face. Shadow Weaver, on the other hand, was having none of it. Shadows began to creep up the walls of the room. The artificial lights dimmed.

“Enough!” At once the kids went silent. She grabbed Catra roughly, causing her to flinch, and flung her in the direction of Adora’s bunk, “Take the bunk above my protégé’s. She will keep you at bay, you little beast,” Her attention went once again to Adora, “I’m sure you can handle it.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Good.”

Catra made sure to wait until her keen ears couldn’t detect Shadow Weaver anymore before cautiously nodding to Adora and climbing up onto the top bunk without a word, leaving Adora hanging with her hand out in greeting.

“Hi! I’m Adora! Not one for talking, huh? That’s cool… but I think you’re really going to need a friend here. Gets really lonely-”

“If I say yes will you let me sleep?”

“Deal!” she giggled, crawling into her own bunk, “Goodnight.”

“Night…”

Time around Glimmer sped up once again, this time for no more than a second. There, alone in the dark, lay Catra, making sounds not too different than the one’s she had made in Glimmer’s presence. 

“No! Stop! Mama… MAMA! Stop h-hurting me… I’ll be good… I’ll be a good girl… a good sol-jer… Please!”

“Catra?”

Catra jolted awake and immediately began sobbing.

“Catra, come down here, it’s okay!”

“No it’s not! It’s not okay!”

“Shh, don’t wanna wake anyone. And if the guard’s catch us talking they’ll beat us real hard.” For some reason, this only make Catra cry harder.

Then she stumbled down to Adora’s bunk and collapsed in her arms.

“Shh… shh… it’s okay… you can sleep down here with me as much as you’d like! We’ll just need to be sneaky about it, but that’s okay because I’m the best sneaker!”

Catra sniffled and forced a laugh through her tears.

“That sounds really nice…”

“You’re my friend now Catra. I’m going to take care of you.”

And Glimmer knew with all her heart that Catra believed it.


End file.
